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back during my stint with the sheriff's dept. I've of off marine guys launched at a locate tidal launch and left his vehicle in place on the launch due to the emergency. Well he came back to find fish in his unit.

I can't understand why people don't take the time to train their wive's/girlfriends to either drive the boat onto the trailer or back a trailer.

That would be in order to preserve the relationship and the boat/trailer/truck.

That's not a joke. My GF can drive my truck or boat, forward, in easy conditions, if absolutely needed. That's probably never going to get better, and would be highly stressful to change. Maybe I should have had a GF checklist that included being tall enough to reach the truck pedals with more than the tips of her toes.

I usually have a buddy in the boat who can handle the boat at the launch in the rare event that it's crowded enough to warrant dropping me off to get the truck/trailer.

Man I just feel more and more lucky. The first summer Heidi and I were together there was a drought that left only one ramp usable and this ramp did not have a dock. We go out on week days a good bit just the two of us and she caught on real quick, she gets in the boat, I back the truck and she reverses it off and come to get me at the end of the ramp.

At the end of the day she motors up close to the ramp and I hop out with the truck keys and get back the truck down and she drives the boat right up on the trailer. Makes it super easy! She is probably better at pulling the boat on the trailer than I am since she does it all the time and I rarely do it.

Boat Launch idiots!!

It seems to get worse every year. The major problem with the lakes in South Carolina are the lack of no wake zones in the dock areas. not real easy to manage your boat when everyone feels the need to pull tubes and test out their new prob 15' from the dock. For some reason jet skiers also find it necessary to stay around the docks all day making it even more interesting. Just a complete lack if curtesy and common sense.

Good for you guys. My wife was afraid to do any part of it for years. Now she will back down the last few feet to launch and pull the truck out and go park it. I taught both my older daughters to drive on the trailer. It can be a little tricky when I don't have any of the three of them with me but with twin 13 y/o boys coming up I'll have some more help soon.

That would be in order to preserve the relationship and the boat/trailer/truck.

That's not a joke. My GF can drive my truck or boat, forward, in easy conditions, if absolutely needed. That's probably never going to get better, and would be highly stressful to change. Maybe I should have had a GF checklist that included being tall enough to reach the truck pedals with more than the tips of her toes.

I usually have a buddy in the boat who can handle the boat at the launch in the rare event that it's crowded enough to warrant dropping me off to get the truck/trailer.

My wife and are a pretty good team. We critique other people's launch and retrieval skills, or lack there of, most are pretty good, some are just abysmal and should be flogged Anyway I'll back the trailer down and then jump in the boat and back off, she'll take the truck and trailer and park it as long as she doesn't have to back up she is gold, and if she gets in a bind she has asked a fisherman for help before, they just picked up the trailer and moved it so the tire wasn't on the line (50$ fine for that). I pick her up at the dock, then when we are done I pull the boat up to the dock so I can jump out and she takes over and backs the boat away from the dock while I get the truck and trailer, once I'm backed in she drives the boat on. There is the occasional bumper car effect when she comes in a bit crooked and bounces around some but overall she does a great job. Just don't get her nervous, then her default escape plan is to throw the boat into a fully power turn, not sure why and it is scary We make it as fast as we can so we aren't one of "those guys".

My wife and I have made a pretty good team over the years as well. I usually handle the trailer duty (she never quite got the hang of which way to turn the wheel of the truck to make the trailer go the way that she wants) and she handles the boat. Like David, my wife has actually gotten much better than me at driving the boat onto the trailer!!!

Makes for a pretty quick in-and-out at the launch and we can usually do it in less than 5 minutes.

I moved off the lake about 6 years ago and we moved out to hick country. There was a dirt boat launch by an old abandoned supermarket into a big part of a river north of a relatively popular reservoir. Aside from when I hit a stump one time, it was great because weekdays it would just be me and maybe a few fishermen, and I'd guess about 150 acres of usable watersport area.

Anyway, on the weekends the boat launch was the biggest gathering of idiots I've ever seen. To give you an idea, the average value of a boat being launched there was probably about $400, and same for the vehicle hauling it. Not to mention, again it's a dirt launch. I'd say about 5-6 people per day got stuck, and the biggest mud truck in the parking lot at the time would pull it out - there was always one at least. Also, at all times there were kids swimming and people floating on tubes and stuff at the boat launch, literally I had to yell at people to get out of the way to launch and load. It was always quite the site!

About wives...I just asked my wife yesterday "why don't you ever use the jetski I bought you over the winter, you've ridden it once?" (I bought her a nice 3 seater so she could take the kids out while I'm gone at work or traveling). Her response was "I don't want to try and get it off or back on the lift"...if that gives you any idea as to how much help I have loading/unloading watercraft.